Hospital's Yours, Va Tells Orange

Orange Will Get The New Hospital Despite Questions In Congress, The Va Secretary Assures The County Chairman.

September 16, 1992|By Michael Griffin Of The Sentinel Staff

Orange County officials rallied the troops Tuesday in the continuing battle with Brevard County over a planned veterans hospital.

Armed with fresh assurances from Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward Derwinski, County Chairman Linda Chapin told commissioners she is more convinced than ever that Orange will get the 470-bed hospital and the 1,700 jobs it would create.

Commissioners responded by voting 7-0 to pursue a $12 million land deal with developers once Chapin's staff can confirm that the VA's intention to build in Orange can't be overturned by another government agency or Congress.

The vote was meant to reassure the landowners. They have agreed to donate acreage for the hospital near Orlando International Airport in exchange for $12 million in road, sewer and water improvements by the county on developable land nearby.

The landowners, hoping the hospital will be a magnet for development, have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on environmental and other studies aimed at moving the deal along.

Chapin was called away from Tuesday's commission meeting to take Derwinski's phone call.

''Secretary Derwinski reiterated the VA's support and his firm belief that Orange County is the best site,'' Chapin told commissioners after the call.

Chapin took aim at U.S. Rep. Jim Bacchus' assertions at a press conference last week that preliminary findings by the General Accounting Office raised serious questions about the 78-acre Orange County site.

Derwinski ''found nothing disturbing in the preliminary issues raised by the GAO,'' Chapin said. ''He said the VA can and will back up the decision when the time comes.''

Derwinski sent Chapin a copy of the response he gave GAO auditors last month when they asked him to justify his decision last March to have the hospital built in Orange by 1999.

Among the considerations, Derwinski wrote, were new census numbers that showed the Orange County site was closer to more of the 282,000 veterans who live in the six-county region.

Derwinski could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but VA spokeswoman Linda Stalvey said the agency is moving ahead with the Orange County site.

''The secretary assured (Chapin) that the GAO report would have no impact on the VA's moving forward with the project,'' Stalvey said.

Tuesday's long-distance phone exchange was the latest in an increasingly nasty fight over the hospital project.

Bacchus, D-Cape Canaveral, had asked the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to look into the decision.

GAO auditors briefed Bacchus on their investigation's status, and he held a press conference Friday to reveal some of the preliminary findings. Among those are that the VA has not justified choosing Orange over Brevard and that the Brevard site would be cheaper because the Air Force would kick in about $18 million toward construction in exchange for having the hospital near Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach.

Bacchus could not be reached Tuesday. His top staff member, Linda Hennessee, reiterated the congressman's assertions that the report's findings raise serious questions.

Stalvey said the VA will rebut those findings once they get the chance. The GAO won't complete its report for a month.